Test Fonetico per la Prima Infanzia (TFPI)

A New Instrument to Assess Italian Toddlers' Phonetic Development

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5900038
AutoresClaudio Zmarich (0000-0003-0384-4041, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, autor correspondente), Sabrina Bonichini (0000-0003-0143-572X, University of Padua), Marta Motterle (Independent Researcher, 36030 Caldogno, Italy), Maria Palmieri (Independent Researcher, 35125 Padova, Italy), Emanuela Sanfelici (0000-0003-2592-4528, University of Padua), Serena Bonifacio (Independent Researcher, 34144 Trieste, Italy)
Ano2025
Volume10
Fascículo1
Páginas15
Data de publicação2025-01-16
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLanguages (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
EditoraMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages10010015
OpenAlexW4406437014
IdiomaIT
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas28

The purpose was to contribute to the validation of the TFPI, a new tool to assess the phonetic development of Italian-speaking children aged 18-47 months. Since currently norm-referenced instruments for Italian are lacking, the TFPI would fill this gap. We recruited 52 monolingual children aged 24-47 months with typical development. They were administered the complete TFPI, i.e., a naming task and repetition task; however, only their performances from the naming task were analyzed. The sessions were audio-recorded, in order to be later segmented and annotated in Praat, then manually transcribed with IPA. These data were then imported into Phon, an extremely suitable software for conducting analyses of phonological and speech data. We compiled the Phonetic Inventory (PhI) and calculated the Percentage of Consonants Correct (PCC) for each child, taking into consideration the allophones of Italian, in order to not compute them as errors. Both the PhI and the PCC improve with age, while intersubjective variability progressively decreases. Additionally, we investigated the age of the acquisition of each phone, since this domain lacks robust scientific data. Finally, our results align with previous findings, which proves the reliability and validity of the TFPI, and provides new information about the PCC, for which there are no reference values for the Italian language

Biology · Test (biology · Language Development and Disorders · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development